It can be distinguished by its compact (often trifarious) rosettes of small, rigid, erect, red-spined, deep blue-green leaves.

The small (7–8 cm) fruit head is held erect on a short peduncle, and it is enclosed in three-ranked (trifarious) bracts.

Each fruit head is packed with 200–220 small, unilocular drupes, with slightly convex tips.

Another Mauritian species, Pandanus drupaceus, though a larger shrub or tree, also has rigid, incurved leaves.

[2][3][4] It was endemic to Mauritius, where it was formerly common in the damp wetlands of the highlands near Le Petrin and Les Mares.